Quod Erat Demonstrandum

Letters undelivered

*This piece is semi-fictional, but just seemed like an interesting idea to write about.

*****

Hi there,

Have you ever sent a letter to someone with a rush of excitement, only to find yourself waiting endlessly, for the intended person to acknowledge its receipt? Or have you been on the other end, hoping to receive a letter from a beloved, only to find that curiousity die down every single day, because you know the postal services screwed up somewhere? I’ve actually found myself on both ends.

But how many times does it happen, that you end up receiving a letter that was never intended for you?

And what do you even do with it? Deliver it to the person it was intended for? Write something back to the sender? What’s the right thing to do?

My initial thoughts were simple. Tear it up. Open it. Read it. Devour it. Cause I had been snubbed by the postal services way too many times. And this simply hadto mean something. Maybe it was the universe sending me a message.

Now before you can even attempt to jump onto any conclusions, let me paint a picture. I received this letter around Thanksgiving, which was intended for a certain Ruby Berkshire. Now, I am no Berkshire but I do consider myself to be a gem of a person! Also, Berkshire, that’s such a British name. Indians have an illustrious fascination with the British. I was intrigued. Also I had only moved into my current apartment about four months ago, so Miss Berkshire was probably a previous resident. And someone thought of her as worthy enough to be written to.

So there it was, the letter undelivered, sitting on my table. And I dared to open it.

*****

Ruby Berkshire obviously meant a lot to Paul, No Lastname. No, that was not his last name, he just didn’t indicate one on the letter. It was just addressed from a certain Paul, from Mississippi. Maybe he didn’t have a last name. Or maybe he didn’t have a first name. Paul is a valid last name too. No hints about ethnicity either. There are (last name) Pauls that are Indians too! Also, there was no return address. Just “Mississippi”. How many M-i-s-s-i-s-s-i-p-p-i’s would it take to locate a Paul in Mississippi?

Mononym Paul seemed to have written a thank you cum friendship letter to Miss Berkshire.

I know it’s been a long while since I’ve written to you, and you were probably not expecting this by mail…

…

…thank you for being the wondorous human being that you are. You never fail to surprise me.
…

…In every achievement of yours, I seek inspiration … and in every failure, a warrior partner… cause battles aren’t fought alone.

…

Damn, Paul was intense.

Paul went on for one more page about how he would be the Sapphire to this Ruby, and how both of them, separately, were destined for a sparkling bright future.

What was the deal with Paul? Why was he so overemotional? Was everything okay with him? Did Ruby break his heart? Or did he break hers? Move over Berkshire, Paul had my attention!

I rummaged through the rest of the letter and finally found my eyes drifting to the end of the letter. By this time, I was totally immersed. I wanted to find Ruby Berkshire and trade lives with her. I had mapped out a plan to cyber-stalk and find out who she really was.

Ruby, if you’ve reached the end of this letter, I have something important to say to you…

I know you’re not Ruby. If you are, then the odds of that were less than one in a million. But that doesn’t make you any less than one in a million. Luckily for you, I’m not Paul either. Or maybe I am actually just a random intense guy on the street called Paul. Paul is a common name. Unlike Ruby Berkshire. I wrote this letter as a social experiment. I picked a random valid address off Google Maps and I decided to post you a letter.

What did you think of it?

Letter writing is such a lost art, do you think I could have conveyed those beautiful emotions in person? Words are open to interpretation; even though there’s emotion attached to them, they appeal more coherently when read in the right frame of mind. Plus it never hurts to know that someone put in so much thought and effort to put a piece of creativity to pen and paper. Someone you may not even know!

If this letter made your day, in any way, join me in this experiment. Write your heart and soul out and send it to someone, anyone! Spread some cheer! And you know whom to address it from 😉

The only way to get love is to be lovable. It's very irritating if you have a lot of money. You'd like to think you could write a check: 'I'll buy a million dollars' worth of love.' But it doesn't work that way. The more you give love away, the more you get. - Warren Buffet